The shedding of tears appears
to have originated through reflex action from the spasmodic contraction
of the eyelids, together perhaps with the eyeballs becoming gorged
with blood during the act of screaming. Therefore weeping probably came
on rather late in the line of our descent; and this conclusion agrees with
the fact that our nearest allies, the anthropomorphous apes, do not weep.
But we must here exercise some caution, for as certain monkeys,
which are not closely related to man, weep, this habit might have been
developed long ago in a sub-branch of the group from which man is derived.
Our early progenitors, when suffering from grief or anxiety, would not have
made their eyebrows oblique, or have drawn down the corners of their mouth,
until they had acquired the habit of endeavouring to restrain their screams.
The expression, therefore, of grief and anxiety is eminently human.
Rage will have been expressed at a very early period by threatening
or frantic gestures, by the reddening of the skin, and by glaring eyes,
but not by frowning. For the habit of frowning seems to have been acquired
chiefly from the corrugators being the first muscles to contract round
the eyes, whenever during infancy pain, anger, or distress is felt,
and there consequently is a near approach to screaming; and partly
from a frown serving as a shade in difficult and intent vision.
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